From their origins in Mexico City to the 2022 SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas, the three members of Demons My Friends have a shared journey that made their union fated. That shared geography has played a role in their musical process, as they recorded their second album, Survive/Yourself , between Mexico and Texas. Post-COVID personal hardships shape the album’s themes, with illnesses, job losses and family crises cited as sources of stress that fueled their songwriting.
Demons My Friends don’t deliver doses of sadboi, however. What they play is a raw, rough and tough style of grunge. Although it flirts with mainstream bands like Alice in Chains and Soundgarden , Survive/Yourself plays its grunge out of the ordinary. While making music is undoubtedly a healthy outlet, the question remains whether it’s a good idea to get too friendly with your demons.
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Demons My Friends blends dense stoner/sludge guitar tones with catchy alternative rock hooks for a thrilling sonic palette. The fuzzy guitar on the opening track “The Theory of Change” recalls Mastodon , while the chorus takes a page from 90s rock bands like Nirvana and Bush . However, the tracks on Survive/Yourself run a little longer than the more radio-friendly grunge examples, leaving room to wander and play. Often these moments serve as highlights, especially the melodic lead that appears mid-song on “The Last Dance”. And although sludge proves to be the dominant guitar tone, Demons My Friends also show their more sensitive side. “Kalorama”, with its catchy scratchy guitar lead, borrows heavily from Pearl Jam‘s soft jams. On other tracks, the guitar becomes more playful, with a twang arpeggio on “We All End Up Here” and a genuinely nice psychedelic part on the album’s catchiest song, “Brain Holographics”.
Unfortunately, Demons My Friends end up being their own worst enemy. The second half of Survive/Yourself finds a fairly successful formula with some catchy tracks that could almost pass for radio. However, the band makes some questionable choices that hold it back. However great “Brain Holographics” is, it stretches on for too long thanks to a long instrumental detour that makes the song almost lose its way. The fun, High on Fire-inspired stoner track, “Smile”, includes a strange growl that mars an otherwise tight melody. Also, there’s the matter of the vocal performances. Since both Pablo Anton and Lu Salinas have vocal credits, I’m not sure who the culprit is, but one of the two sounds consistently off-key, and his voice is especially strained at higher frequencies (most noticeably on “Last Dance” and “Star Child”). These sonic issues give a sense of raw emotion, but they also distract from the flow of the songs.
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The production, with a DR rating of 10, proves to be a blessing, but some production choices prove disastrous. The biggest blessing belongs to the guitars. The dense, fuzzy tone is so satisfying as it fires on “The Theory of Change” and again about two minutes into “We All End Up Here”. Similarly, Salinas’s bass benefits, adding a little funk on “Brain Holographics” and a little grit on “Smile”. However, throughout Survive/Yourself there are strange sonic issues that diminish the music. The ending of “The Theory of Change” sounds like someone let their kid play with the recording equipment, as a child’s voice repeats “I” over and over. Other noise effects tricked my brain into thinking I was hearing something outside the music. The raindrop-shaped drum pulses on “Brain Holographics” made me look at the ceiling, afraid I’d see a leak. Vocal idiosyncrasies here and there, like the strange spots heard on “Star Child”, gave me the feeling that someone had snuck up behind me. Fixing these issues would have resulted in a much smoother album.
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While they present some nice tracks and nice ideas, Demons My Friends have some demons to exorcise from their repertoire in songwriting. There are aspects of their more experimental side that work well — some exploratory instrumental passages and the varied guitar sounds. However, some of what they do simply distances listeners from the musical experience. They clearly have a knack for some great hooks — I find myself humming the chorus of “Brain Holographics” quite often, for example. I look forward to hearing how they manage to evolve their blend of experimental and mainstream music on their next release.
Rating : 2.0/5.0
DR : 10 | Format reviewed : WAV
Label : Ripple Music
Websites : Bandcamp | Facebook | Official
website release worldwide : April 17, 2026
